


The Kokiri

by StevetheIcecube



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Link is a baby, Ocarina of Time Prologue, Set before Ocarina of Time, The Kokiri - Freeform, The Lost Woods, i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 15:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4711547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Children don't go to the woods at night (but that was exactly how Link came to be with the Kokiri).</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Kokiri

Little children didn't go into the woods at night. And if they did, they didn't come out.

The Kokiri were in the forest. And if little children went into the woods at night then the Kokiri ate them up until they had no soul and they were a shell to put a Kokiri in.

So little children were a bit too scared to go into the woods at night, just in case they lost their souls.

The village was dangerous now too. It had never been very safe, it was on a field full of monsters. But now it was even less safe. Every night people would flee across the field to the village, running from whichever force was attacking innocent people that night. Was it the forces of the Hylians? The Zora? Gerudo? Goron, Sheikah? It would probably be one of them driving someone out of a village that was in the line of fire. It felt like the deepest lake or the depths of the forest would be the only places that were even remotely safe anymore. Even if the forest was only for the soulless Kokiri.  
That night had been particularly cruel. Almost a hundred refugees had come in, and some had been told that they would have to be out in the morning unless they could pay to rent rooms in the village. The one the mayor felt most sorry to tell this was a young woman.

Her husband had been killed, she told him, crying. Her husband was slain by a Gerudo, and her child had almost been stolen from her arms by the murderer.

The child. He had been eerily quiet for a small thing of two. He had burbled a few times, but the woman told him her son had been deeply affected by the war and was, as of yet, unable to speak. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the pair, and for what he had to do to all who couldn't pay up.

It was a command from the goddesses above and he could not avoid it. He would not be able to evade their wrath if he did not follow their words to him.

The morning dawned and he had not received word to the contrary of what he had been told. It was with a frown on his face that he told the assembled refugees where they must go from here.

"There is a safe passage through the forest to a valley." He said. "There are children who are protected by the forest inside. They will guide you."

The small group of refugees set off, seeming pleased to head off into the forest to a potential safe future. Especially the woman and her child. She had thanked him for giving her a quiet route to a safe future for her darling baby.

He felt terrible about it but he could not tell her otherwise. He had spoken the words the goddesses had given to him, and his job was done. He would only have to pray that he did not have to condemn so many again.

\----

Tern walked on ahead of her. As soon as they had stepped into the forest he'd demanded to be put down. In his way of wriggling and making plaintive noises not unlike that of a dog's. The things he picked up from those desert people, honestly.

And then the desert people had turned against everyone. They nearly got her poor Tern. She dreaded to think what they would have done with her fragile little boy. Trained him as a thoughtless killer just like them, probably. Or killed him. Or treated him as a little pet.

He seemed almost fine now. He had asked in his way where his daddy was, just a few times, but he hadn't pressed it and he didn't seem to understand when she'd told him daddy wasn't anywhere except with the goddesses now.

He seemed happy to wander through the woods for a bit. She was surprised. He'd never seen grass before yesterday, yet he regarded it with little curiosity. It was like he knew what it was, even though she knew he couldn't. Maybe he just accepted it. Enough terrible things had happened in the last few days that grass wasn't really going to stump him.

At least they were going forwards to something better, something safer. It was getting to late afternoon now, the sun was setting. They had seen no sign of any forest children, but she presumed that was because they weren't lost.

As soon as it started to get dark, Tern broke into a run. He was gone so quickly and she had to follow him. Where had he run to? Had he fallen over? Into a hole?

She heard laughing up ahead. She ran towards it and found herself in front of…a tree. A very large tree in a clearing.

"Tern!" She called. "Tern, where are you baby?"

"Do not worry about your child." Was that…that was the tree speaking. "I am the Great Deku Tree. Your child is with my children now."

"If he's safe, I would like him to be returned to me." She didn't want to defy this obvious being of great power, but she was worried about Tern. He was little and frail still, and they had been through so much.

"He is with my children now. He is sleeping." The Deku Tree said. "He will be safe. You may go to your end happy."

"My…end?" She needed to see Tern. She needed to keep going, clearly.

"He is in the woods." The Tree told her. "Go, search, but be careful, do not get lost."

She left, and the Kokiri swarmed from their village. The child was not sleeping, but instead he was awake and clamouring for the attention of young Saria. It was clear he was unable to speak, but the Deku Tree had no knowledge of whether this was normal for a Hylian child or not.

"She is gone now, children." He told them. "But I did not catch his name!"

Saria lifted him into the air with little difficulty. "I think his name is Link."


End file.
